In this edition, a tribute to a 1980s summer blockbuster that is still a crowd-pleaser, plus I’ll be taking a look at some specific talent in regard to movies. This month’s digest is a little bit thin this time because I have acquired an awful lot of secondhand content so quickly within six months time that everything needs advanced planning for future posts like this one. Still, there isn’t a shortage in sight when it comes to treasure hunting for movies and music, when seeking the opportunities come right at the moment.
Let’s start off with TOP GUN, now in its 40th anniversary. All of the aerial action, romance and star power that delivered a big bang during the summer of ‘86 when America was at its proudest. And its soundtrack, most notably ‘Danger Zone’ by Kenny Loggins, still gets a healthy amount of airplay on radio. Who can remember the very first time renting this now-legendary Tom Cruise picture about fighter jets in training? Before the movie started, you were greeted with an exciting promo for Diet Pepsi, which was the first time a product placement ad was included on a videocassette that was officially licensed for home use.
It’s still possible that you can find this original copy anywhere secondhand goods are sold, despite evidence of a magic marker price tag on the upper right — you can tell that Paramount’s ‘75th Anniversary’ insignia is on the bottom front. I just happen to come across a really worn out box, but the tape itself looked like it was in very good shape — catch the new ‘Videos & Pics’ link at the upper right corner. Such wear and tear also reminds you that the legacy of TOP GUN came a tremendously long way after four decades, and it continues on following the long-awaited 2022 sequel TOP GUN: MAVERICK, a record breaker in box office receipts of over one billion dollars.
A pair of horror movies from Goodwill, you ask? What a catch! They certainly weren’t the best horror movies to find, though. The thing is, they didn’t come from the retail store… they came tucked underneath all the linens and textiles at the Goodwill Outlet, better known in the thrifting community as ‘The Bins’. Lucky for me I didn’t get injured one bit on a Saturday because these places are loaded with mobs of anxious people looking to buy stuff by the pound and resell them for big profits. Getting cut by a picture frame without wearing gloves while sifting through everything would have made this trip a ‘slasher’ movie experience like no other.
The pair of titles in mind were BORDELLO OF BLOOD and a remake of Wes Craven’s LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. I just grabbed them and left. This house sure has a lot of vampires!
If you haven’t watched one of my reels titled ‘I Went Goodwill Hunting’ — the link to them is on the upper right of the homepage — then you have likely missed an interesting footnote. Here, I was presenting DVDs and CDs by pulling them out of the white bag. Did you notice that three movies I found starred Minnie Driver? That’s very uncommon IMHO. The British actress had roles in THE GOVERNESS, RETURN TO ME, and the coincidentally titled GOOD WILL HUNTING that brought her to stardom. She’s been much more than being on the big screen, too, with a music career that spanned three albums to her credit. Quite a lady!
On the other hand, I never believed I was going to find BILL COSBY: HIMSELF, a 1982 comedy concert film that is to this day still the only concert movie rated PG. With topics like natural childbirth, it was gently and miraculously funny to say the least, and notable enough to be the starting ground for the breakthrough comedy series of eight seasons, THE COSBY SHOW. And yet, we all found out decades later about how the Cosby saga came down.
And if stand-up concerts are your thing, you definitely don’t want to miss Richard Pryor’s LIVE ON THE SUNSET STRIP, also from 1982 in a period of a concert movie craze going on. Vulgarity aside, he cracks you up with his insightful account of his personal life. The success of this feature inspired Eddie Murphy to make DELIRIOUS and RAW for moviegoers, with Pryor’s follow-up HERE AND NOW released the very next year.
By the way, did you catch ANNIE on that billboard? It’s in the background right behind Richard Pryor on the cover art of the above selection. Both movies were put out by Columbia Pictures in 1982, a banner year for the studio that also had the Oscar-caliber hits GANDHI and TOOTSIE. The strange irony here is that a family musical gets promotion for a concert comedy that’s fully loaded with cuss words.
I heart Vanessa Williams…
I heart Vanessa Williams, too…
Vanessa is the very best of both worlds.
And yet, another famous Williams rises above the surface…
Now before you start thinking you don’t wanna watch these really old movies anymore because you’re making excuses like… “well, they too old-timey” or “it just ain’t my kind of thing”, and so on, realize that fine art is still reusable. What if I were to tell you that some person went out and donated an Esther Williams set of five musical movies and this detective of thrift store bargain hunting and movie collecting went out of his way to grab and snatch it for just a mere four dollars? That’s eighty cents per movie, chump! Cha-Ching!
Williams was down-to-earth in MGM’s musical heydays and movie cinema in general because she was a real-life swimming champion in the same way Sonja Henie was to figure skating. That expertise in graceful athleticism proved effective to the movie song-and-dance parade, bringing her some box office love along the way. Before there was such a thing as Warner Archive, the cable TV network Turner Classic Movies released DVD sets of star-studded vintage movies through its ‘Spotlight’ series back in 2007 — this one was the first of two volumes released, totaling eleven films of Esther Williams..
The five movies compiled in this set are likely the most essential choices: BATHING BEAUTY was Esther’s introductory movie role, while DANGEROUS WHEN WET is notable for an animated Tom And Jerry sequence embedded into the star’s musical routine set underwater. NEPTUNE’S DAUGHTER features a montage of curvaceous ladies in gorgeous beachwear that remain eye-popping as ever, proving that MGM’s vintage product was all sweet and sexy… and especially not for Junior! The two remaining films in the set are EASY TO WED and ON AN ISLAND WITH YOU. You never know what vintage treasures might end up on the sales floor, and this Esther Williams set is proof of that.
This concludes Thrift Store Digest for now, but hopefully next month we’ll take a look at Christmas goodies — there’s always plenty of them to go around. And be sure to check out my TIKTOK right here for more content related to physical media!
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